The nervous little puppy gets a pat on the head.
Thanks so very much- I heard from them – very positive comments in fact – as early as 7:30 last night – and ran into more folks at the Y this morning! I look forward to meeting you – when do you teach, I’ll try to drop into your class. I REALLY appreciate your help on such short notice. Thanks again.
Samantha
From:
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 6:52 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Sub request - urgently needed tonight
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 6:52 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Sub request - urgently needed tonight
It was fun- you had 32 people- I think it went well .....you have a great group in there who obviously love your class!
I will happily sub that group anytime!
Melissa
In other, strange news ~ I found out that the Y actually pays by the class, and not by your actual time there. I found this out when my supervisor emailed me asking why I was clocked in for 3 hours yesterday…...Which is super odd, as one has to finger print scan in and out of their time clock. In other words ~ when I got there at 5 PM last night to find 20 people already lined up in the hallway for the 5:15 class, unlock the door, get them set up, find out that one had a shoulder injury and two were in their second trimester, have 32 mats set up and props for those who wanted them, turn on the lights, set up my music……all to start class at exactly 5:15 and end at exactly 6:10….then it took about 15 minutes to get everyone out of there, music lights etc off, talk to those who had questions or wanted to meet "the new girl" etc…..and I clocked out…..I only got paid for one hour. I worked for 90 minutes. I'm not there to make money ~ seriously ~ If I wanted to make money I'd be back in corporate lending………but something about working for 90 minutes on a clock and getting paid for 60 really is just wrong to me. Thoughts?
If I just show up at 5:15 the students suffer, and I don't want that and I don't think that that is fair to them.
Why have a time clock and require clocking in and out…..if people are being paid (poorly) per class? I'm making 4 times what I make at the Y at the cross fit studio, but that will of course include my set up and after class time….and I won't have a time clock to punch.
I guess I'm just confused? It is just me or is that a strange policy? Would it bother you to work for 90 minutes and be paid for 60? Or is yoga simply going to be altruistic in nature when I work at the Y and I should accept that and look at it that way…..but even then its annoying that I have to go in, set up my room, greet my students, set up the environment, then run out right before class to punch the clock! ITS SO WEIRD!!!!
I have no insight on how most places do it, but my gut is that it is weird. Why require you to clock in and out, when you only are paid per class? I think it would be one or the other? I am just as confused as you are.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I always find that the line is very thin between things that are totally normal and things that seem overtly crazy to me ~ so its always nice to get validation that its not just me. :)
Deletehmmm. that seems weird that they have you do clock in & out but give you a hard time about the specifics. here I do get paid only for the hours I'm teaching but when I clock in, there's a menu where I select that I'm teaching a 60, 75, 90 min class and go from there. that would annoy me if I had to worry about how early I was clocking in. I do like to get there early, that's just how I am. A couple of the classes I teach bump right up against the previous class (yes, it's annoying), so getting there early doesn't make much of a difference because we can't get into the room until right at class start time. but for me with the Y here, it was very much a case of me wanting to work there - we don't have any other sort of gym/community center membership so having that as a benefit was a big part, and the free childcare while teaching. And I feel like even though the pay isn't fabulous, I am absolutely valued. My other teaching experience has been either paid per student or a 50/50 split. Well, I teach one monthly donation class where I pay the space owner $5 and keep the rest, but that's unusual. If you can I'd ask another of the teachers there what they do as far as the rushing back and forth, that seems bananas.
ReplyDeletePlaying catch up with you -- super thrilled for you about how well the classes have been received and how much you are enjoying teaching. I guess I would have assumed you got paid by the class and not the hours. Some teachers seem to spend more time before and after classes, but it appears based on their own preference. That said, I would also assume that your payment for that class was fair compensation for whatever time you put in. If not, then it would bother me regardless of the actual hours involved, if that makes sense. Like Jenn said, I would want to feel valued by both the facility and the students. Having them come chat with me afterward (assuming I wasn't in a time crunch) would, hopefully, add to the feeling of appreciation and also build participation in future classes. Our gym cancels or renews based on participation and has limited studios, so the instructors do need to continue to keep their class fresh and audience engaged. I know the teachers have report a count of benches/mats for each class. The schedule has a buffer of 15 mins between classes, but it still can be tricky getting everyone out and the new participants set up during the break. Can they have someone else unlock the door for you so that people can set up as they arrive? Seems like you wouldn't have to babysit that process, though I'm sure you still need to get yourself in there and set up. Hmm. Anyway the time clock is really weird if you are not getting paid hourly. Kind of big brother-ish.
ReplyDeleteWe do the same thing Karly as far as writing down how many students attend (in fact I had a bad dream about this last night, only 4 people attended my Sunday morning class and they couldn't figure out how to arrange their mats and kept messing around with them and class never started!)….but yeah, I talked to a friend who teaches Pilates there once a week and she just cracked up and said "Welcome to the Y!"….I guess its just understood that everything is weird and there is a lot of disconnect between branches/coordinators/Group fitness and Mind/body etc…. So, good lessons for me in "rolling with it". Being flexible in all things, right ;) My forte!
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